Global Climate | ModeShift

$100 Barrel Oil Nears; Streetcars in Portland

by Keith SchneiderOctober 31, 2007November 1, 20070

Â Two items caught my eye today. World oil prices reached $93 a barrel this week, which is why gasoline at the Wesco down the road is $3.07-a- gallon tonight.Â The other news is the announcement on MondayÂ that city leaders inÂ Oregon want to dramatically expand the number of neighborhoods served by Portland’s spectacularly successful streetcar. The two developments are related, of course, because as fuel prices rise the sanity and fuel-efficiency of streetcar lines makes ever …

Online, Televised, Blogged, YouTube and More New Media at the Clinton Initiative

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 29, 2007October 5, 20072

NEW YORK —Â Live television imagesÂ fromÂ the various plenary and working sessionsÂ are everywhere at the Clinton Global Initiative. They appear on screens as big as king size bed sheets in the main conference hall. They illuminate flat screens that stand in the halls and smaller meeting rooms. A row of smallÂ screens decorate a refreshment area close to the lobby of the Sheraton New York. This demonstration of televisedÂ ubiquity is just the leading edge of a communications strategy …

Climate Change Is A New Global Organizing Principle

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 27, 2007September 28, 20075

Â NEW YORKÂ — The X Prize Foundation, which developed a new philanthropic idea called “revolution through competition,” toldÂ participants today at the Clinton Global Initiative that it would commit $300 milion in the nextÂ seven years to help solve global crises in each of the four CGI focus areas. The foundation said it is developing new prizes to increase access to renewable fuels, improve energy efficiency, and promote use of cleaner fuels. It also will have …

Michigan’s Energy Schizophrenia

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 6, 2007September 20, 20078

Late last month I had the chance to spend the day with scientists at Michigan State University who are involved in carrying out the work of the new Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a partnership between MSU and the University of WisconsinÂ financed by a five-year, $125 million federal research grant. It isÂ one of three such centers across the country determined toÂ fillÂ America’s national gas tank with fuel made from plants. Bruce Dale, a chemical engineer at …

An Energy Alliance to Watch in Michigan and Elsewhere

by Keith SchneiderAugust 8, 2007August 8, 20070

John Bebow, the executive director of The Center For Michigan and a former reporter for the Detroit News and Chicago Tribune, reports in his weekly update that M and M Energy, a Florida-based energy development company, has proposed building a multi-billion dollar “polygeneration” coal-fired electric generating stationÂ on the site of a shuttered oil refinery in Alma.Â The company presented its plan to the state Senate Energy Committee in mid-April and has been busy shopping the ideaÂ in …

Low Great Lake

by Keith SchneiderJune 28, 2007June 28, 20073

It’s an odd sight to venture to the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s upper peninsula and see dry dirt where there used to be water. Lake Superior, which holds 14 percent more water than the four other Great Lakes combined, is 18 inches below normal, lower than it’s been since 1926. We’re sort of used to low lake levels out here in the upper Midwest. Not long ago Lake Michigan was so low that …

Public Opinion on Energy Bill: Conservation Trumps Production

by Keith SchneiderJune 19, 2007June 19, 20070

Ruy Teixeira, a journalist who does a very good job keeping track of public opinion at the Center For American Progress in Washington, published this analysis of where citizens think the energy bill being debated in Congress ought to go. The verdict: Towards green, efficient, conservation measures and not to new production.Â The money quote: “The public is also quite clear on its priorities when it comes to promoting energy conservation versus increasing the supply …

Toronto Transit City

by Keith SchneiderJune 18, 2007June 20, 20071

In 1954, the year that Detroit was busily completing the Lodge Freeway and starting construction on the city’s other major highways Toronto (see pix) opened 12 stations on the Yonge Street subway line, the city’s first. Since then Toronto has built three more regional rapid transit lines, 69 stations, and nearly 43 miles of subway and rapid transit track. The city’s subway and surface streetcar system carries 1.2 million passengers a day, many of whom …

Hey! Energy Bill Debaters Look At New York

by Keith SchneiderJune 12, 2007June 17, 20073

Â NEW YORK — Early this morning, before the sun peaked over the roofs of the grand old apartment buildings of the Upper East Side, I followed the road bikers and dog walkers and joggers over to Central Park for a splendid four-mile run.Â New York is full of young people now, bright, educated, trim, and ambitious.Â A whole bunch of them are up just after dawn toÂ clear their minds and keep their bodies tunedÂ sufficiently to compete …

California Governor Tracks Back, Says He Supports High Speed Rail

by Keith SchneiderMay 6, 2007May 6, 20071

Â The push back by the old and new media to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut state funds to the agency overseeing the development of a 700-mile high speed rail network in California appears to have influenced the Republican governor’s view. On Friday, Schwarzenegger (see pix) published an op-ed in the Fresno Bee extolling a high speed system. Thanks to Marcel Marchon’s Trainblog for keeping us current. “The promise of high-speed rail is incredible,” wrote …